The Journeys of John and Julia: Genesis (Book 1) ~Complete~

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Julia tried to get comfortable in the spacious seat in the spacious rear section of the spacious limousine. A moment of childlike excitement pushed her adolescent problems to the side as she looked around. A 20-inch flat screen was attached to the back of the seat in front of her and a big skylight gave the impression as if the ceiling was covered in midnight blue velvet with glow-in-the-dark stars stitched to it. She giggled when she realized that the front passenger seat had been removed to make room for an old trunk suitcase that was in stark contrast to the source of the bluish light illuminating the interior of the car, namely a dashboard monitor right out of a sci-fi movie. That was such a bonus! Not only did she get away from the restrictive world of Cedarwood Ridge, she left it red carpet style in a luxury cab!

"I am pleased to hear you laughing," her quaint psycho driver said in his antiquated way of talking. "May I inquire as to what amuses you?"

Debating whether she should even respond to such weird speech, her mouth seemed to have acquired a mind of its own.

"I was just imagining my grandmother's face if she could see me riding celebrity mode in this rig!" Julia blurted out. Warts! Why did I have to say that, she blurted within. Holding her breath she expected a deluge of questions about her family and was surprised to hear her traveling companion with some excitement of his own, "Yes, this is quite a marvelous ride! I must confess I am rather fond of traveling in this manner. I never invented it to be so easy to maneuver. And it is reasonably fast too, relatively speaking of course."

Relatively speaking of course! Julia had no response to that, not even her usual gut-wrenching impatience. On the contrary! She noticed she felt extremely comfortable in the presence of this strange stranger and realizing she had not felt this way since her dad's exit to a new family, her tension immediately returned.

"That is some funny looking equipment you carry around and to be honest I have never seen a car like this either," struggling for a distraction that might keep the driver thinking about his vehicle rather than invite him to wonder about her being out there in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night.

"What equipment exactly are you referring to, dear child?" the man turned his head and in the fraction of the second it took her to grasp the meaning of the man's question, Julia recognized his face as being highly attractive. But the gap closed and visions of drugs, weapons or worst of all cut up corpses being stowed away in the trunk suitcase transformed it back into the scary mask of evil.

"Well, your computer, what else would I be referring to?" trying to make her voice sound firm and swap all images of serial-killer-taxi-drivers with images of Korben Dallas shuttling the 5th element to safety.

"I have no memory of what it is you could be referring to."

"Then let me refresh it for you? I definitely find it weird that you drive around in the middle of a private forest with this space age computer and a medieval suitcase," Julia ready to fight, the mounting adrenaline of anger bringing a welcome normalcy back to her out-of-control emotional state.

"Oh that," the man tried to reassure her, "my excuse for being here is that my friend owns a carriage company on the East Coast and one of his drivers brought a tourist couple cross-country to the West. Then this driver found what he considers more desirable occupation in the big city and ended his employ. So my friend asked me could I do this favor and bring the cab back to his fleet. Without other obligations to attend to I agreed. So here we are. My name is Victor Wagner by the way."

Strangely, Julia felt instantly comforted by Victor's speech, and her calm returned. At least his somewhat lengthy story explained why he wasn't talking like a taxi driver - he wasn't one! And the mention of the word East sounded like music to Julia's ears.

"You're going east! I'm on my way to the East Coast myself!" She looked at him with new eyes. And because these new eyes for once were unclouded by fear, she saw a kind face radiating something she couldn't even put in words. This of course, instantly scared her and the moment passed.

"And I guess you're right. It's really none of my business what equipment you carry and it makes sense that between the two of us you'd be the one to know why you're going where," she admitted uncertainly, as if listening to the statement would convince her of its truth, "but I could have sworn I saw two other taxis on that road before you stopped and I guess it kinda freaked me out."

"Well Julia this can be a rather normal response to your circumstance. You were standing there all alone in the middle of the forest in the dark of the night and though you were hoping for means of transportation you were also afraid to be picked up by someone of bad intention, mentally deranged perhaps, driving about on this lonesome road. Hence a certified taxi is not a bad choice for your awareness to project to give you some kind of familiarity in this unusual situation," explained Victor, trying to be helpful.

Julia froze. She had heard none of the things Victor said aside from his using her name. Which she had not told him! No storytelling would convince her otherwise. Putting her mind to avoiding a new panic attack she said, "And how exactly do you know my name?"

"Oh that! I apologize for being so rude as not to properly ask, but this little tag on your knapsack clearly states it belongs to one Julia Livingston-Banes and because I do not hold you to be a thief I presumed Julia to be your good name."

Julia sighed a silent sigh of relief and got pounded by the next wave of dread. She was such a wannabe. How could she have forgotten about the nametag? She looked at her backpack sitting innocently on her lap, the fake minidisk dangling from it, tantalizing her with Julia Livingston-Banes for sure clearly visible in the oversized rear view mirror, just as Victor had said. So much for staying incognito. The damage was done. Now all she could do was to find out how serious it was.

"You're not from around here then, are you?" she asked in an effort to deflect from her own person, "You talk kind of funny, you know."

"No, as a matter of fact I would not know anything about that sort of thing but you are most certainly accurate in your notion of my being foreign to these parts. It has been some time since my last visit and it seems you tell me I should attain more suitable manners of speech. I will give this my best effort - I shall aspire to, so to speak," Victor laughed at his pun. Or at least that's what Julia thought he did. With most of her immediate worries assuaged for the moment, she stared onto the long dark stretch of road ahead as if looking into the future.

They drove in silence. The big trees to either side of the road created the impression of driving in a tunnel, effectively lulling Julia to sleep.